The present invention relates to heat transfer devices and, more particularly, to a dual corrugated fin material, extended surface, for use in air cooled electronic high density applications, particularly those having small cubic volume space restrictions.
Heat transfer devices, such as heat sinks and heat exchangers, are widely used for absorptive thermal protection. To achieve this, heat transfer devices are made of various types of corrugated fin material to allow energy transfer during passage of air and/or fluid through the device.
It is known in the art that heat transfer can be improved in various applications by increasing the surface area of the fin material. The surface area of the fin material can be increased by either increasing the height of the fin material; increasing the number of fins per inch of the fin material; or increasing the width or flow length of the fluid along the fin. However, each of these improvements has tangible limits. For example, the part incorporating the fin material typically has a height and width limitation, which the fin material must adhere to in order to fit in the part. This is particularly the case with compact parts such as medical equipment, space applications, and computers, where increasing the size of the fin material and, therefore, the heat transfer device, is extremely undesirable. Additionally, increases in the height and/or width of the fin material does not create a directly proportional increase in the performance or efficiency of the heat transfer device. The other improvement technique, increasing the number of fins per inch, is theoretically sound, but realistically limited. The number of fins per inch is limited by the performance and ability of the corrugation means for corrugating the fin material.
It is seen then that there exists a need for a fin having improved heat transfer, without compromising the size of the part in which the fin is used.